Panda Population:

Finding out how many pandas exist in the wild is not an easy task.

In fact, it requires a massive effort, with teams of researchers spending many hours trekking through steep, mountainous bamboo forests looking for telltale signs. In particular, for dung!

Often, they have to walk for days, inspecting every metre of the forest floor for panda poop!

When they find some, they sift through it and pick out any pieces of undigested bamboo. And by carefully studying any bite marks, it is possible to identify individual pandas because their bite marks are all unique (a bit like fingerprints).

Each team is composed of 40 people and can cover around 80km2 of remote, difficult terrain every day.

Habitat:

The giant panda was once widespread throughout southern and eastern China, as well as neighbouring Myanmar and northern Vietnam.

But due to expanding human populations and development, the species is now restricted to around 20 isolated patches of bamboo forest in six mountain ranges in China's Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.

Most of the remaining wild pandas live in the Minshan and Qinling mountains. And it is here that WWF has focussed its giant panda conservation work, supporting the Chinese government's efforts to conserve the species.

Since habitat loss is the most serious threat to the panda, establishing new reserves and extending existing ones are crucial to its survival.

After a significant increase in recent years, China now boasts a network of 67 panda reserves, which safeguard more than 66% of the giant pandas in the wild and almost 54% of their existing habitat.

The Chinese government, in partnership with WWF, has also developed bamboo corridors to link isolated pockets of forest, allowing the pandas within them to move to new areas, find more food and meet more potential breeding mates.

Food:

A panda's daily diet consists almost entirely of the leaves, stems and shoots of various bamboo species.

Bamboo contains very little nutritional value so pandas must eat 12-38kg every day to meet their energy needs.

But they do branch out, with about 1% of their diet comprising other plants and even meat. While they are almost entirely vegetarian, pandas will sometimes hunt for pikas and other small rodents.

Indeed, as members of the bear family, giant pandas possess the digestive system of a carnivore, although they have evolved to depend almost entirely on bamboo.

This reliance on bamboo leaves them vulnerable to any loss of their habitat – currently the major threat to their survival

The Future:

Giant panda numbers are slowly increasing, but the rare bear is not out of the woods yet.

Traditional threats to pandas such as poaching appear to be declining, but large-scale disturbances including mining, hydro-power, tourism and infrastructure construction are becoming more severe.

WWF's 2015-2025 giant panda conservation strategy sets the course for panda protection efforts over the next decade and will focus on improving panda habitat in a manner that balances conservation with local sustainable development.

WWF will cooperate with the government as well as working with partners and the public to protect key habitats and ensure a sustainable wild giant panda population, and benefit local communities.

These conservation efforts will also benefit many other rare species of animals and plants that live side-by-side with the pandas, including the endangered takin, golden monkey, red panda, and crested ibis.

We should do everything we can to save the giant panda because we are the ones that have driven it to the edge of extinction. And because we can.

But pandas also play a crucial role in China's bamboo forests by spreading seeds and helping the vegetation to grow.

So by saving pandas, we will also be saving so much more. We will be helping to protect not only these unique forests but also the wealth of species that live in them, such as dwarf blue sheep and beautiful multi-coloured pheasants.

And we will be providing a lifeline for a host of other endangered animals, including the golden snub-nosed monkey, takin and crested ibis that share these magnificent forests with the panda.

The panda's mountains form the watersheds for both the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, which are the economic heart of China-home to hundreds of millions of people. Economic benefits derived from these critical basins include tourism, subsistence fisheries and agriculture, transport, hydropower and water resources.

Pandas themselves are also economically and culturally valuable. They are the national symbol of China and generate significant economic benefits for local communities through ecotourism and other activities.